This disclosure relates to improvements in ceramic material processing and investment casting.
Investment casting is known and used to cast metallic parts of relatively complex geometry. For example, turbine engine components such as blades, vanes, and blade outer air seals that have internal passages or cavities are formed by an investment casting process that utilizes a ceramic core. In the investment casting process, a metallic alloy is cast around the ceramic core to form the internal passages or cavity of the component. The ceramic core is later removed, leaving the internal passages or cavities.